


Excuse Me, While I Kiss the Sky...

by korben600



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Airbender Ty Lee (Avatar), F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-06
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:08:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25751107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/korben600/pseuds/korben600
Summary: Ty Lee is many things. A gymnast, a Kyoshi Warrior, a good friend, wanted for several counts of arson and property damage......and also apparently an airbender?!?!?!?This is the story of how Ty Lee's life becomes weirder...somehow.
Relationships: Mai & Ty Lee (Avatar), Suki & Ty Lee & Zuko (Avatar), Suki & Ty Lee (Avatar), Ty Lee & Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 20
Kudos: 126





	1. Rituals and Reconsideration

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Pickledragon for giving this a once-over before I released it onto the unsuspecting masses!

_*Thok* *Thok* *Thok*_

“Uhhh...Ty Lee?” 

_*Thok* *Thok* *Thok*_

“Ty Lee!” “GAH!” 

Ty Lee, gymnast (exceptional), chi-blocker (expert), circus freak (former), and enemy of the state (amateur), was not what one would call…”situationally aware”. Sure, she was _perceptive_ , one does not survive years next to the Fire Princess unscathed without some serious interpersonal skills, but when it came to the literal awareness of threats around her, she still had some things to learn. 

It also didn’t help that the person interrupting her was a Kyoshi Warrior, renowned for their combat skills and stealth abilities. 

That being said, her reaction to the sudden presence next to her was perhaps...overblown. 

“Ty Lee, relax, I promise I’m not mad, now come down from there.” 

The gymnast, currently hanging by her knees from the third floor balcony of the prison block, where she’d leaped in surprise, was carefully looking at Yurushi with a calculating gaze. The ominous effect was only slightly undercut by the fact that the expression, like Ty Lee’s torso, was upside down. 

“...are you sure?” Ty Lee said, narrowing her eyes. She and the Kyoshi Warriors hadn’t gotten off to the greatest start, in prison, and she still regularly second guessed her assessments of their mental states.

* * *

_“Hey, aren’t you that chick who captured us?”_

_“Oh hey, Mai! Look, it’s the Kyoshi Warriors! We haven’t seen you all in_ forever _. How are you guys doing?”_

_“...girls, kick their ass.”_

_“NO WAIT, WE’RE GOOD NOW!”_

* * *

“No, I’m not mad, Ty Lee.” Yurushi said with a slightly exasperated look on her face. 

“...”

* * *

_“Hey, boys, we got one of those famous ‘Kyobi Girls’!”_

_“Get off me you assholes!”_

_“Oh, look at you, not so dangerous now that you’re restrained, huh? Well how about me and my buddies pay you back for your girls breaking my nose.”_

_“Oh god, no, please-”_

_“HEY!”_

_“Who are-AH, my arm! What did you do to my-HRCK”_ **_*THUD*_ **

_“...wha-what? What just-”_

_“Hey, you okay there?”_

_“I...I...what did you-who-”_

_“I’m Ty Lee, and they’re alive, it’s called chi-blocking and it will wear off in a few minutes, come on, me and my friend Mai have a cell just down here. We can keep you safe until the other Kyoshi Warriors find you.”_

_“...thank you.”_

* * *

Ty Lee quickly dropped back down to the second floor balcony, and Yurushi nodded down the hall. 

“Come on, Mai’s just woken up, we’re gonna hit the kitchens in force before the other assholes clean out breakfast.” 

“Wonderful!” Ty Lee said with slightly exaggerated cheer. “I love Monday gruel! And we can see that one chef at the end of the serving line who _totally_ has a thing for you!” 

The Kyoshi Warrior in question sighed in a way only a _true_ friend of Ty Lee could. “He’s in here for _murder_ , Ty Lee.” 

“ _Alleged_ murder!” She said brightly. Ty Lee had spent enough time with Azula to know that the gap between ‘alleged’ murder and _proven_ murder was _much_ wider than one might initially think. “ _And_ he’s cute.” 

Yurushi pinched her nose as she blushed slightly. “We are _not_ talking about this.” 

“But-” “What was that you were doing there?” Her friend interrupted her. 

Ty Lee, contrary to popular opinion, was actually _very_ good at steering conversations where she wanted, and she could tell when someone was trying to do the same to her. She mentally shrugged. If Yurushi didn’t want to talk about how the ‘alleged’ murderer was giving her the choicest picks of Monday gruel, and how she laughed a _little_ too hard at his terrible puns, she wouldn’t push. 

“It’s just a morning ritual.” She said, shrugging. 

“What for?” 

The gymnast shrugged again, casually hopping onto the railing, and walking on top of it, her arms splayed out for balance. Yurushi, for her part, was so inured to the display, she didn’t even bother looking down at how far Ty Lee would fall if she slipped. 

“It’s an old family trick.” the bubbly girl said easily as her eyes focused on the thin railing she was treading on.

* * *

_“Ty Lee.” Her mother said carefully. It was early morning, and the sun had barely crested the horizon. However, her mother had gotten her name right on the first try, which was unusual enough that Ty Lee forced the exhaustion out of her eyes. “It’s time for you to be a good girl.”_

_“Mommy…” she said with a yawn. “Why are we up so early?”_

_Her mother sighed. “We have to do our morning ritual.”_

_“Ritual?”_

_“Yes, sweetie, I’m going to show you how to do it first, then you’re going to need to learn how to do it.”_

_Ty Lee nodded, confused, and her mother sent a quick series of jabs into her chest and torso._

_All at once, her breath left her, and she began wheezing. Her mother looked at her sympathetically, and rubbed her back softly._

_“There you go sweetie. Losing your breath is totally normal, that means it's working. You’re going to need to learn this quickly-”_

* * *

“-it’ll add years to your life.” Ty Lee said offhandedly. “At least...that’s what my mother said. It was basically the only time I ever got individualized attention, what with six identical siblings so I kept it up, even when I...left.” She finished, focusing more intently on her balancing act. 

“Really?” Yurushi said curiously. “It looked like chi-blocking to me.” 

Ty Lee slipped slightly, and was about to careen to the ground when Yurushi grabbed her, roughly dragging her back onto the prison balcony where she regained her balance. 

“Ty Lee, you okay?” 

The chi-blocker waved her off. “It’s fine, just...huh...it does kind of look like chi-blocking, right?” 

Her friend shrugged. “I mean, kind of.” She tilted her head at Ty Lee. “Hey, why not try it on me? If it’s so healthy, I could use the boost.” 

There was a moment of indecision, but curiosity had gotten the better of both of them, and Ty Lee reapplied her mother’s movements onto her friend. 

Yurushi choked slightly, and Ty Lee quickly rushed forward to support her. 

“Ho...ly...shit…” She wheezed. 

“Hey, hey, you’re okay, losing your breath is normal.” Ty Lee said quickly. “That just means it’s working.” 

“Oh...good…” Yurushi wheezed. 

“Is-is something working?” Ty Lee said worriedly. “Are you feeling better?” 

The Kyoshi warrior gave her friend a quick look, saw her distress, and lied through her teeth. 

“Yep...just... _great_.” she said as she regained her breath. 

“...oh.” 

“Come on…” Her friend continued. “We need to get to lunch.” 

Ty Lee nodded, but as they continued, Yurushi couldn’t _completely_ shield her friend’s feelings. 

“This is definitely chi-blocking.” She said quietly. “Feels _just_ like fighting you, only... _deeper_.”

* * *

For the rest of the day, Yurushi moved like she was injured. Now, being a Kyoshi Warrior, in prison, and very sensitive to her friend’s feelings, she didn’t _complain_ about being injured, in fact, she actively tried to cover up her weakness. 

But Ty Lee had spent _months_ as Azula’s best friend. The _definition_ of repression and pride. So Ty Lee noticed her friend’s struggles pretty much immediately. 

Yurushi would get tired climbing small staircases. During training, her arms flowed with less rhythm than they had before. But the worst was her balance. Something about her balance was off, and she was stumbling over things all day. 

In fact, Yurushi didn’t start moving normally until late the next morning after their experiment. Her breathing finally came back to what it once was, her rhythm in battle was restored, and her balance returned in force.

* * *

Quietly, Ty Lee stopped her morning ritual.

* * *

A week later, they were released from prison to attend Fire Lord Zuko’s coronation. 

Everything became so hectic after that point, most didn’t even notice a change in Ty Lee’s demeanor, and those that did attributed her positive mood to their newfound freedom. 

Included in that number was Ty Lee herself, who simply...forgot about her morning ritual altogether...and the strange feelings surrounding it. 

This would not remain the case.


	2. Precipices

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On guard duty, Ty Lee has a quiet moment of reflection.

Ty Lee’s head dipped slightly in fatigue. She felt her eyes begin to close as she was about to dip into her dreams, when she suddenly realized what she was doing, and she shot up with a jerk. 

She shook her head slightly, and rechecked her armor, weapons and makeup quickly. The gymnast was there on a job, and she was _determined_ to do it to the best of her ability, sleep be damned. 

Weeks into Zuko’s new administration, the Kyoshi warriors had been tasked by Mai to protect her boyfriend from assassins. 

And as the most recent entrant to the order of the Kyoshi Warriors, Ty Lee got stuck with the graveyard shift. 

Still. It wasn’t the _worst_ job she’s done. Azula once had them cramped in a tank for days on end, chasing the Avatar for days across the earth kingdom. She’d learned to fall asleep to the sound of tank treads beneath her, which, if she thought about it, was probably the source of her current problems. 

She sighed, and tried to focus on something else. Her eyes shifted to the city beyond the balcony she was standing at, trying to focus on it instead.

* * *

The Fire Nation never really slept, Ty Lee mused quietly. 

When every other member of the population was a walking night-light, it made sense that light would be on at all hours of the night. 

Even as the hours rapidly approached midnight, little flickers of glimmering flames would dance over the city. 

And from her spot standing on the balcony of the Fire Palace, she could see them _all_. 

The light pollution wasn’t great. Ty Lee was a circus girl at heart, and she missed laying back in her cot, just watching the infinite sky twinkling above her, free to traverse the heavens. 

...but she supposed those microscopic twinkles made an acceptable replacement.

* * *

She was just seconds away from drifting off again when she realized that staring aimlessly wasn’t working. 

She gripped the balcony’s handrail, looked down, and breathed deeply to steel herself. 

As her gaze was unintentionally directed downwards, she couldn’t help but gaze over the edge of the railing. 

The Fire Palace was, first and foremost, meant to showcase the might and power of the Fire Nation. Since the might and power of the Fire Nation had historically caused it to have a lot of enemies, the Palace was  _ also  _ designed to deter said enemies from visiting unannounced. 

As such, it had been built with sheer drop offs under the balcony, and wide sweeping vistas so those standing on it could see the entirety of the outer defenses, as well as the aforementioned capital city itself. 

All of which combined in the low light of midnight to give Ty Lee a _keen_ impression of just how high up she was. 

But she didn’t feel scared. 

She knew how to be afraid of heights. She saw how the people around her shied from the edges of steep cliffs, or balconies like this one, and she could fake that well enough. 

However, Ty Lee had never really _understood_ that feeling. 

Ty Lee had always just felt...kind of ambivalent about heights? It’s part of what made her an exceptional gymnast, she could focus just on the movements, not where she was. 

But now, a foreign feeling coiled in her gut. As she began truly realizing how high up she was, something began pounding in her heart, causing her to grab the railing tighter. 

She realized she could just...fall. 

No, not fall. 

Something different. 

Something inside her whispered that she wouldn’t be falling. That she _couldn’t_ fall. 

That she would fl-” _Ty Lee?!?!_ ”

* * *

She turned quickly to find Suki standing at the door to the balcony, hands outstretched towards her in a placating fashion. Her whole body was tense, like she was about to lunge at Ty Lee. 

“Ty Lee?” She repeated carefully, like she was calming a wild animal. “You doing okay?”

* * *

Ty Lee had not been imprisoned with Suki. The closest she’d gotten was trying to bring her _back_ to prison, but despite that setback, after they’d been reintroduced in a less hostile setting (and after the rest of the Kyoshi Warriors had vehemently vouched for her), they’d quickly become close friends. 

Even more so than the rest of the Warriors, Suki wore her heart on her sleeve, and Ty Lee quite enjoyed spending time with people so frank. 

Which only added to her confusion, because if she didn’t know better, she would swear Suki was _terrified_ at that very second.

* * *

“Yeah, I’m great, Suki!” She said cheerfully, trying to diffuse the situation. “Was a bit tired, but not _too_ tired, if you know what I mean.” She paused for a second. “Wait, what are you doing here so early?” 

Suki’s face was a literal mask of confusion in the low light with her combat makeup exaggerating her face. 

“Ty Lee, I’m _late_.” She said evenly. “I was supposed to be here half an hour ago.” 

The gymnast in question tilted her head slightly, before looking to the sky, then back. The moon was definitely in a farther position than it’d been at the start of her shift. 

“Huh. You’re right.” She said, before freezing for a second. “Hang on, why are you half an hour late?” 

Her friend coughed into her hand. “I was uh...talking with a friend, and-” 

“OH RIGHT, Sokka’s visiting!” Ty Lee said loudly, earning a fluorescent blush from her leader, which managed to show, even through her makeup.

“SHHHH…” Suki said as she shushed her subordinate. “You don’t need to announce it to _everyone_ in the palace.”

“But everyone knows already.” 

Her leader sighed. “Look, just...get down from there already, I’m here to relieve you.” 

“Down? Down from where?” 

The worried look on Suki’s face returned again, and her eyes dipped down, as if to confirm something. 

“Ty Lee…” She said softly. “...you’re standing on the balcony railing.” 

The gymnast finally looked down, and realized that she had, in fact, been standing on the wooden railing the entire time they’d been talking. She also realized that even the slightest incorrect movement would send her soaring down the sheer walls of the palace to splatter onto the ground below. 

Distantly, the feeling returned. 

“...I suppose I am.” Ty Lee said quietly, and she accepted Suki’s helping arm as she climbed down to the balcony’s stone floor. 

“...you sure you’re alright, Ty Lee?” Suki said, worried, as Ty lee leaned against the railing, looking out over the palace walls again. 

Ty Lee’s eyes flitted over the palace again, quietly taking in the dark shapes that outlined them. 

“...I don’t know.” she started quietly, gaze raking the courtyard, continuing up. “It just seems like...a lot...like everything’s changing.” 

Suki rubbed her back soothingly, and copied her, looking out over the palace as well. 

“You know, that’s normal. Things have changed, and will continue to do so.” She gently pulled the gymnast a side-hug. “And when things change, we’ll be there to meet it.” 

Ty Lee’s eyes traced over the last few shadows outlining the darkest parts of the palace grounds.

“I know. It’s just that, something _else_ feels different. I feel better, but not just morally, it’s like I-” Ty Lee froze, and her eyes quickly backtracked. 

Suki felt the change in her friend’s body language, and pulled back her hand from where it’d been draped around Ty Lee’s shoulder, her fingers instinctively dropping to her fans. 

“What?” 

Her subordinate’s eyes raked over the area she’s just been watching, waiting, hoping that she was wrong, and it was just a trick of the light. 

Then the shadow moved again. 

“Assassins.” Ty Lee said quickly, and hopped onto the railing. “Call the alarm!” 

Suki had her horn out before she could even process the situation, but her mouth caught up with her thoughts just as Ty Lee turned her back to her and bent her knees. 

“What are you doing?” she asked, finally realizing where her friend was standing. 

Though she couldn’t see it, Ty Lee smiled. 

With a quick dash and a might heave, she _launched_ herself off the railing, aimed for the wall the balcony jutted out of. 

As she used her momentum to wall run towards the intruder, she could hear Suki’s warning horn in the distance behind her.

* * *

But all of that was lost in the sound of the air rushing through her ears, and that feeling overwhelming her body. 

Suki was too busy rallying the palace’s defenses to truly take stock of the situation as it unfolded. It was only later, as she was wiping her makeup off her face, and getting ready to go to bed, that she thought back to Ty Lee’s actions. 

Something about the encounter niggled her. Not just the “leaping off a several story balcony” thing, though that definitely was part of it. 

It was something about _how_ she did it. Something... _familiar_.


	3. Kidnappings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A kidnapping attempt on Fire Lord Zuko goes awry...for the kidnappers AND the poor Kyoshi Warriors trying to protect him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks as always to Pickledragon, for putting up with my specific brand of crack long enough to read through it. XD

Ty Lee’s eyes scanned the horizon, gazing down the streets of the Fire Nation capital from her perch on a random rooftop. 

“They’re here!” Came a whispered voice from another rooftop, grabbing her attention. She turned to find another Kyoshi warrior, the woman’s body pressed into the sloping red curve of another roof, as she pointed to the horizon. Ty Lee gave her a curt nodd, and quickly flipped a fan up into the air, setting off a small wave of identical signals as the rest of the warriors responded in kind. 

“Stay sharp, girls…” she said to herself, as she kept her head on a swivel.

* * *

_ “We have intelligence that there will be a kidnapping attempt on the Fire Lord. They’re going to try to take him on the way up to the palace.”  _

_ “So...we’re going to just take him in the secret way, right? If we know where it’s taking place we can avoid it!” _

_ “Not quite.” Suki said with a vicious smile. “We’re gonna set a trap.” _

* * *

Ty Lee had a small spyglass in her hands, and she focused on the landing airship. She had to raise herself a bit to clear the random people standing around on the dock, who’d stopped when they saw the airship come down. 

But when she did get a good angle, she found Suki ready to get off first, but Zuko slid past her and hopped to the ground with a small smile, before chivalrously offering her a hand to help her down. 

She smirked slightly at the goofball, and snorted at Suki’s mock-disapproving punch in his arm, before Ty Lee switched back, to look over the Kyoshi warriors who were all lining roofs adjacent the path to the palace. 

But even as her smile faded, something seemed...off. 

She couldn’t put her finger on it. As her eyes went up and down the nearly empty street, a pool of dread began forming in her gut. 

It felt like she was missing something. She went over every street corner the kidnappers were supposed to be hiding in, covered every inch of the biggest thoroughfare in the Fire Nation to find nothing. 

Not even anyone suspicious, just...nobody. 

The feeling got worse. The last time it had been this bad, it’d been when she was perched on a wire, and she’d seen Azula waltz over to her safety net. 

She shook herself. She had a job to do. 

“Ty Lee?” Another warrior whispered. “You alright?” 

“..I don’t know, Funan,” She whispered back. “I just...something tells me that they  _ know  _ we’re waiting for them?” 

“Can’t be.” her partner said quietly. “We’re the only ones who knew about the trap.”

* * *

Ty Lee took a deep breath, and closed her ears, taking in her surroundings. Just listening to the peaceful quiet around them. 

She could feel the air currents swirling around them unabated. She couldn’t hear anyone walking around them.

Something about that made her dread even  _ worse _ .

* * *

She was brought back to the world by her partner. 

“Seriously, we even cleared the people off the street,  _ nobody  _ can see us up here.” 

Ty Lee froze.

* * *

_ She could see Azula’s cruel smile as the fire approached her net, and the realization of what was happening raced down her spine like ice-water. _

* * *

This was the busiest street in the Fire Nation. And they’d  _ cleared it _ to protect the civilians.

* * *

“We’re  _ made _ .” Ty Lee said quickly, getting up, no longer caring about being spotted. “They were going to use the  _ crowds  _ to get close to Zuko.” 

To her credit, her partner didn’t even question Ty Lee’s assessment, just popping in a quick word as she drew her fans “Wait-if they knew it’s a trap, won’t they just pull out?” 

“ _ We _ knew it was a trap, and  _ we  _ didn’t pull out.” 

Her partner’s face furrowed in concentration. “If they’re not abducting him  _ here _ , then where?” 

“They need cover to get in-” Ty Lee began muttering as her spyglass went up and down the street. “-they need a way out-” she went farther and farther up the street until finally getting to Zuko’s airship, but she couldn’t see him through the...crowds. “-and they need to be  _ far  _ from us.” 

Someone in black moved through the crowd towards the Fire Lord and his bodyguard.

Ty Lee sprang to her feet, and drew a great breath. 

“SUKI!!!!” She shouted, her voice echoing over the entire city.

* * *

Suki had been tense the entire ride to the Earth Kingdom, and for the entire ride back. Impending kidnappings tend to do that to a girl, even if she wasn’t the target.

But while she had been wargaming possible scenarios in her head for the last 72 hours, her charge had been blissfully ambivalent about the situation. Apparently chasing the Avatar gave a  _ guy  _ a really skewed sense of danger, because Zuko was acting completely normal, which had only served to antagonize her poor mood even more. 

By the time they landed, she’d had enough of his “cheerful” mood, and was about to bolt off the damn airship when Zuko slid in front of her and hopped to the ground first, before holding out his hand to help her down. 

“My lady?” he said with an ever so mocking smirk as his hand stayed there...in front of the crowd of onlookers. 

“...” For not the first time, Suki was glad that her makeup covered up so much, so nobody could tell she was grinding her teeth as she daintily took his hand in her glove. 

She remained the picture ladylike grace until the crowd began to disperse slightly. Once enough people had looked away, she gave a quick rabbit-punch to the head of state of the Fire Nation. 

“Asshole.” She muttered, glad the makeup covered the blush spreading through her cheeks. 

Zuko rolled his eyes, not even registering the hit to the arm. “You need to lighten up. This is hardly my first kidnapping.” 

She glared at him. “As I recall, you were the one  _ doing  _ the kidnapping.” 

“Only half the time.” He said offhandedly. She looked at him in confusion, and he clarified. “Azula.” 

“Ah. That makes sense.” It really didn’t but she’d grill him for details later. She was about to do the security sweep he’d interrupted when a voice came thundering down from the palace. 

“SUKI!!!!”

Half the people around her flinched from the sound, and her head whipped around, up the thoroughfare. Years of training had graced her with the eyes of a hawk, and she quickly spotted what she presumed was Ty Lee running across the rooftops with the rest of the Kyoshi Warriors following her. 

By that point, the rest of Suki’s mind had processed the warning in Ty Lee’s tone, and she was whipping out her weapons. In one smooth move, one fan flipped out into a shield, and she instinctively backed her charge behind her, towards the airship. 

As if on cue, a man in black rushed out of the crowd and slammed a knife towards her. She managed to get the shield up in time that it wouldn’t cut her, but the jolt of the blow still caught her off-guard.Consequently, she wasn’t fast enough to keep him from using his dagger to wrench the shield away from her. 

The last things that she processed from that brief burst of adrenaline were the meaty fist slamming into her face hard enough to throw her, and the other three people in black advancing on them.

* * *

Ty Lee couldn’t see everything as she dashed across rooftops. Even for a gymnast, jumping and sliding on roof tiles took up too much of her attention, but she still caught glimpses of what occurred. 

A flash of Kyoshi yellow, from Suki’s shield. 

Ty Lee was dashing across the thin edge where both sides of the roof met. 

The yellow was gone, with only black shapes moving forward.

She slid down the roof's side to catch a gutter. 

There were flashes of orange light, Zuko had finally gotten involved. 

Ty Lee used the gutter as leverage to jump to the next series of houses. 

The orange light expanded, brighter. 

The gymnast tried landing on another rooftop, only for a tile to crack off, causing her to lose balance. 

The airship’s engines billowed black smoke. 

She tumbled towards a dark alleyway, the shadows punctuated only with white lines of laundry strung across it. 

The orange light of Zuko’s fires went out.

* * *

She was about to break every bone in her body. It was just a fact. The Fire Nation did not have any truly  _ tall  _ buildings, barring the palace itself, but the three stories she would tumble down were  _ more  _ than enough to cripple her. 

But somehow, the only thing she feared was what would happen to Zuko and Suki if she didn’t get there in time.

Ty Lee had never understood the fear of heights. 

But she knew that fear she felt seeing Zuko’s flames go out. 

So she took a deep breath, and let  _ go _ .

* * *

Her arm shot out, grabbing one of those laundry lines, and while she grunted with exertion, she used that to adjust her trajectory. Gravity still pulled her down, but now she  _ chose  _ where she was pulled to. 

...coincidentally, there was another laundry line in  _ just  _ the right spot below her. 

When she landed on the second one, the line groaned and stretched under her weight, but she just subsumed herself in that feeling of  _ letting go _ , and it held, if barely.

Then, just as it reached its lowest point, it did as all elastics did, and snapped  _ back _ . 

Ty Lee had already angled her body forward, and the resulting force  _ rocketed  _ her upwards. 

With the upward momentum she  _ flew  _ back towards the rooftops, kicking off a wall to bring her back towards the docks.

* * *

When she was back on track, she  _ refused  _ to give up her momentum, and her feet barely touched the rooftops as she dashed forward. 

But as she raced over the capital of the Fire Nation, she didn’t even  _ look  _ at what was under her feet, instead focusing solely on the docks, which were  _ rapidly _ approaching her. 

She could see more clearly, thanks to her new proximity, and the screaming crowds  _ finally _ clearing her view. 

It wasn’t great. 

Suki appeared disoriented, fending off one attacker, mostly by turtling behind her shield as he pounded on it. 

Zuko was somehow  _ worse _ off. He was already tied up and the rest of the assailants were carrying him into the airship as he tried to breathe fire through a muzzle. 

She sped forward, there were still hundreds of feet between her and the airship.

Zuko was bodily thrown into the back of the airship, as he fumed. 

Her leaps had her flying forward, sometimes seeming as if she jumped over entire  _ buildings  _ in her sheer haste, but she couldn’t spare the energy to analyze the obvious optical illusion.

The driver of the airship seemed to notice her and the Kyoshi warriors following behind, and shouted at them, taking off and leaving her compatriots behind. 

She didn’t feel anything, just the ebb and flow of the air around her as she pushed on.

One assailant manage to get onto the airship, but the one occupying Suki shouted to his accomplices to wait for him, only to get a shield to the gut for losing his concentration.

As she flew across those rooftops, that feeling she’d possessed earlier didn’t leave her. 

The airship moved away from the docks, rising and going out to sea. 

She idly suspected that most people would write her charge off as a loss by that point, and start trying to find a new Firelord to replace him. 

But Zuko was her friend. So she just shouted-

“BOOST!!!”

* * *

Weeks of training with her warriors had ingrained so much muscle memory into Suki’s body that she didn’t even know all the information she had trained into herself. 

So when she heard Ty Lee shout, her body did not stop to question the order, it just angled her shield in such a way for the gymnast to launch herself into the air after the airship.

* * *

Ty Lee’s forward momentum, added to the boost Suki gave that pushed her into the sky, meant that she had the right angle to arrive on the airship. 

What had yet to be seen was if she had enough  _ speed  _ to make it.

Distantly, she felt the pull of gravity again, gradually slowing her down. 

She wasn’t going to make it.

* * *

She blinked.

And while her eyes were closed, she found that feeling in her again.

She grasped it,  _ let go _ , and prayed.

* * *

A whooshing sound filling her ears was the only warning she got before she unceremoniously collided with the airship’s exposed gangplank protruding out the back of the ship. 

The impact knocked the wind out of her, and she scrambled for an armhold on the railings around her. 

Unfortunately, slamming into the gangplank of a small airship wasn’t the most inconspicuous of activities, and the beefy assassin who had managed to get on board walked over to violently dislodge her. 

A large foot lifted up to collide with her shoulder, but with inhuman agility, she twisted out of his way, and his foot sped past her, almost unseating the poor fellow off the airship. A quick jab at a rather harmless, but  _ very  _ painful, chi-path in his ankle had him screaming in surprise before tumbling off the edge to fall to the ocean below. 

She pulled herself back onto the ship, and heaved her first hacking breath since she arrived on the flying contraption, almost vomiting in the process. 

“Get BACK!” Came a voice from inside, and she found the woman inside with two daggers, splayed out much like Mai would before skewering people. 

Ty Lee watched in almost slow motion as the assassin threw one, then the other at her.

* * *

She took a deep breath, and let  _ go _ .

* * *

Ty Lee quietly, and effortlessly, weaved around the first dagger, and the second one. The tiny space of the gangplank only served to heighten the danger of the feat, but as knives three, four, and five passed past her harmlessly, it almost seemed like the gymnast was in a meditative state, not even processing the bladed weapons as they sailed past her.

By this point, Zuko, who was on the floor quietly sawing through the ropes binding him, was over his previous amusement with being kidnapped, and was rather annoyed at the assassin attempting to skewer his friend. 

Zuko was of the firm opinion that his girlfriend was the only one allowed to hurl bladed weapons at his bodyguards, and he expressed his displeasure by kicking out one of the assassin’s legs, causing her to stumble. 

But before she could even hit the floor, Ty Lee appeared in front of her, jabbing a pressure point at her collar. 

She applied more and more jabs and pressure points, nailing the woman continuously.

* * *

_ Her body was on autopilot, just going through the motions her chi-blocking masters had taught her.  _

_ Deaden left arm.  _

_ Deaden right arm. _

_ Restrict airflow. _

* * *

One of Ty Lee’s hands darted out and held the assassin up by the neck so she couldn’t fall to the ground as her knuckles found more pressure points.

* * *

_ Paralyze torso. _

_ Disrupt chi flow. _

_ Cause pain. _

* * *

Ty Lee looked the assassin in the eye as she continued laying more and more punches into the increasingly helpless woman. That feeling she’d had earlier was fading away into something else.

* * *

_ Remove bending. _

_ Cause pain. _

_ Cause pain. _

* * *

The woman’s eyes began to widen in tears, but despite this, Ty Lee’s expression was a picture of dispassionate calm that was slowly morphing into cold anger.

* * *

_ Cause pain. _

_ Cause pain. _

**_Cause pain._ **

* * *

“Ty Lee?!!?” Came a worried voice from beside her. 

With a roar she slammed the woman’s head into the glass, knocking her out, as her body slumped to the floor. Her chest heaved with exhaustion as Ty Lee stared listlessly out the window. 

“Zuko?” She said wearily. “I think I’m going to-” She was about to finish her sentence when the room started shifting wildly, and her friend quickly caught her. “I think I need a buck-” a waste bin was thrown in front of her, and she promptly liberated her lunch from the confines of her stomach. 

“Easy, easy, you’re okay now…” he said, rubbing her back softly. “Didn’t peg you as one who gets airsick.” He added with some humor. 

“Imm-not.” She said quietly as Zuko gently helped lay her on the metal floor of the airship. “Got knocked around on the way up.” she continued, remembering slamming into the gangplank. 

Her brow furrowed suddenly at him. “How’d you get free?” She asked woozily, and he snorted. 

“Not my first kidnapping.” he said with a smile as he held up the torn ropes that had previously bound him, and his unlocked muzzle. 

“Not-a good answeerrrr…” She said, slurring the last bit as the room lurched again. 

“I could ask  _ you  _ how you got onto an airship in flight, you know?” He quipped back.

“Thasss...easy…” She said, with a roll of her eyes as she tried to get up. “I jumped.” 

Zuko gently pushed her down so she was flat against the floor, and gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze. “Hey, don’t get up, just rest. I can drive us back.” 

She was about to move again, but something about how the room was spinning implied that was a bad idea. “Okay…” She said, on the verge of passing out. 

He got to the front of the airship, and casually twirled the steering wheel back towards the mainland. But he paused, looked out the window at the water far below them, then turned to the altimeter as if to confirm what his eyes were already telling him. 

“Wait, did you say you _ jumped? _ ” He said, in visible confusion. 

But it was too late, Ty Lee had already passed out on the floor. 


	4. Storms Inside

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ty Lee meets with an old friend at a party, and things really spiral out of control from there.

“Mai!” The bubbly bodyguard chirped from across the room as she spotted her friend. Despite the numerous partygoers separating them, they meant almost nothing as Ty Lee quickly scaled the nearest supporting beam in the Fire Palace courtroom, and used it as a jumping point to gracefully leap over the confused crowd. 

Jumping over, around, and in some cases, on  _ top  _ of various Fire Nation nobility, Ty Lee landed in front of her friend with barely restrained glee. She was about to reach out and smush her friend’s torso against her in a crushing hug when she hesitated. 

With growing apprehension, Ty Lee finally realized that everyone around them was staring at her with barely disguised confusion, and quite a bit of annoyance from the poor noblemen she’d used as a stepping stool to get there. 

For probably the first time in a while, Ty Lee found herself with a bit of stage fright as she turned back to Mai. “I...uh...I mean, it is good to see you again, Lady Mai-” “Oh my god, just shut up.” Mai interrupted, and the Kyoshi Warrior found herself engulfed in a hug. 

“...this is generally when people hug back, right?” Mai said uncertainly, as her friend continued to stand there, straight as a board. At her words though, Ty Lee’s hands snapped back around Mai like a mousetrap, crushing her in a hug as the Kyoshi warrior bodily lifted Mai off the ground with a high pitched squeal, before putting her back down with a sigh. 

But after the bonecrushing portion of the hug, Ty Lee lessened her grip and just stood there, quietly breathing in Mai’s scent. 

“...I missed you, Mai.” She said quietly, not expecting an answer. 

“...I missed you too.” came a returning voice over her shoulder, and Ty Lee was  _ very  _ glad that Kyoshi Warrior makeup was so rugged, otherwise it’d be stained by saltwater several times over by that point. 

She sniffled slightly, subtly wiping her eyes, and quickly pulled back slightly to look her in the eyes. “Who are you, and what have you done with Mai?” She said with mock concern. 

Mai looked away slightly in embarrassment, blush coloring her cheeks, and Ty Lee frowned, gently squeezing her shoulder.

* * *

_ “Really Mai? Being so gushy? Over a  _ **_boy_ ** _? Don’t be such a simpleton.”  _

_ “Of course! How silly of me, Azula!” _

* * *

“Hey.” Ty Lee said quietly. “I won’t make fun of you.”

Mai gave a microscopic smile and looked her friend in the eyes again. 

“I’m...trying to be more expressive.” She rubbed an arm in embarrassment. “...Tom Tom likes it better when I’m more...open.” 

Ty Lee smiled back. “That’s  _ wonderful _ , Mai.” 

“...thanks.” She said, the blush simmering again. 

Before the silence could become awkward, Ty Lee pulled back more, and her eyes scanned up and down her friend. Overall, Mai looked...pretty much like she had when they’d last seen each other. But as Ty Lee looked, her nose caught something at the edge of her senses. 

“Do you smell like...flowers?” She asked. 

Mai gave an expression somewhat resembling eating bad milk. “Mother is working at a flower shop in the city. Smells rub off.” 

Ty Lee, former circus freak, and designated “Person who dealt with Girly Things” in Azula’s group, narrowed her eyes. 

“Really?” She said with a smirk. “...so that tinge of lavender on your neck  _ isn’t  _ because you’re talking to Zuko later today?” 

Her friend  _ glared  _ at her, and fumed slightly. 

Despite knowing how many weapons Mai had on her person at that very second, the gymnast smirked, and wrapped an arm around Mai in a half hug, dragging her towards the food stand. “Relax, I’m joking!” She said, with the full knowledge that she was lying through her teeth. “Besides, it's good on you!” 

Mai sighed, but gave her friend an appraising look as she was manhandled towards the buffet table. 

“You look good too.” She paused, and gave Ty Lee another once over as her friend began piling food onto her plate. “Actually, you look a  _ lot  _ better.” 

“Really?” Ty Lee said from around a mouthful of dumplings. 

“You look...happier?” She said uncertainly, shrugging, and stealing one of the rapidly disappearing dumplings off Ty Lee’s plate. “And you’re certainly more agile, judging by how you jumped off the Earth Kingdom’s envoy’s head.” 

Ty Lee paused. “Wa-iff.” She said through her food. “Thaf wawf the earf kingdom awnfoy?” 

“I mean, he’s the only guy in the room wearing green?” Mai said uncertainly.

“...shiff.” Ty Lee said, swallowing. “I think I’m assigned to guard him next week.” 

Mai snickered slightly. “If it makes you feel better, the only part of you he knows is the bottom of your shoe.” 

“HEY. I have  _ very  _ memorable feet!” Ty Lee paused after delivering the statement in a haughty tone. “That…probably came out wrong.” 

Her friend outright laughed at that, and gave her another tentative side-hug, before pulling away. 

“...I missed you, Ty Lee.” 

“I missed you too, Mai.”

* * *

After another easy pause, with some more people-watching, they settled back into another conversation. 

“So why are you here, Mai? I thought after the... _ you know _ ...you’d never come back?” 

She shrugged. “Turns out, you can take the family out of the nobility, but you can’t take the nobility out of the family.” 

The former noble-girl turned circus-freak turned enemy-of-the-state looked at Mai in confusion. 

“...Zuko invited me.” She clarified. 

“Ah.” 

Mai shrugged in genuine confusion. “Dunno why. He said he wanted to talk to me about some mutual friend problem. Probably some issue with Aang.” 

“You know Aang?” Ty Lee said in surprise. 

“Yeah, he’s fun to hang out with.” Her friend said, looking at her. “You know him?” 

“Nope!” She said with a shrug. “Never got the chance to meet the Avatar.” 

“I think you two would get along.” Mai said, and Ty Lee hummed in agreement.

A silence ensued between the two of them for several seconds. 

“So…” Mai said awkwardly. “How’s...bodyguard duty?”

“Actually it’s quite nice!” Ty Lee said, with a hint of excitement. “ _ Nothing _ like working with Azula.” 

“Really?” Her friend said with sincere, if subdued, interest. 

“Yeah! We have actual work schedules and everything, lots of long hours, but we also get  _ paid _ .” 

“Is it good?” 

“Oh yeah!” Ty Lee said enthusiastically. “We’re better paid than the regular palace guards, of course, we’re  _ better  _ than them-” “Not a  _ high  _ bar there.” Mai interjected with a smirk, echoed on Ty Lee’s face. “-but we also face our fair share of action.”

Mai perked up slightly. “There have been attacks?” She said with worry. “I hadn’t heard much.”

Ty Lee dropped her voice to a whisper, which was still a higher pitch than most boys past puberty could achieve, but was also quiet enough nobody in the party around them could hear. 

“Don’t tell anyone, but Zuko’s honestly not the most well liked guy. We have at least one assassination attempt every week.” She lowered her voice again. “It’s been  _ worse  _ lately. Some group tried to kidnap him like a week ago.” 

“...is there anything I can do?” Mai said evenly, the warmth in her voice gone. 

Ty Lee paused her whispering, and looked at her friend again, seeing the tension ratcheting through her body, and she gently placed a hand on her shoulder. 

“No, it’s  _ fine _ , Mai. It’s dangerous, but we have it under control.” She said soothingly. “They’re only attacking more because they’re getting more desperate each time we imprison more of them.” 

Mai relaxed slightly, and Ty Lee quickly changed gears, adopting her normal cheerful tone again. 

“Of course, the best part of this job is all the friends I’m making!” She continued. 

“Friends?” Mai said with skepticism. 

“Yeah!” She said eagerly. “All the Kyoshi Warriors, the servants in the palace, and the palace guards, plus lots of time waiting around, means plenty of time to chat and just get to know people! And  _ so  _ many more bright auras around the palace now compared to when we were kids!”

“Anyone replace me, yet?” Mai said, with the kind of snark that’s a  _ little  _ too abrupt to be entirely facetious. 

Ty Lee smiled slightly. “Nope!” She said, ignoring how Mai’s body relaxed slightly. “But I am getting  _ way  _ closer with people. Have you met Suki?”

“Nope.” 

“Oh, you should, you would  _ love  _ her, she’s all toughness and sweetness at the same time, her aura is a bright green, it’s  _ lovely _ .” 

“You’ll need to point her out to me.” Mai said in a placating tone that indicated she would  _ never  _ meet Suki unless at knifepoint. 

“Oh, and then there’s Zuko.” Ty Lee said casually, at this point on a roll.

“Zuko?” Mai said with real interest. 

“I’ve gotten to know Zuko much better now, we’re  _ really _ close!” She said quickly, looking around the crowd for the man in question. 

“Really?” She said with guarded curiosity.

“Yeah! I’ve gotten assigned to guard his room a few times, he’s  _ really  _ a sweet guy Mai, I see what you see in him!”

Ty Lee, still scanning the crowd, didn’t notice Mai narrowing her eyes. 

“He’s even invited me into his room to play Pai Sho a few times!” She finished, finally spotting Zuko talking with Suki on the other side of the room.

“ _ Really? _ ” Mai growled slightly. 

Ty Lee finally realized that Mai was full on  _ glaring  _ at her. 

“...of course it’s  _ nothing  _ like him and Suki,” Ty Lee said quickly, throwing her superior under the raging komodo-rhino. “Those two are practically inseparable! They even had a personal trip alone last week!” 

That last bit was a  _ slight  _ fudging of the truth, but Ty Lee had a  _ very  _ strong survival instinct from years of contact with Azula, and that survival instinct was telling her that a slight fudging of the truth was easier than dealing with Mai’s feelings concerning her ex-boyfriend. 

Luckily, when she gestured to her superior officer and her charge, Zuko and Suki were helpfully in deep conversation and thus in the kind of intimate proximity that would adequately sell her story to a heavily armed jilted ex-girlfriend. 

“...you know, I think I  _ will  _ get to know this ‘Suki’” Mai said, annoyed, and Ty Lee tactfully let her have a clear path to the Fire Lord. Ty Lee was paid well, but she wasn’t paid  _ that  _ well. 

As Mai stomped off, annoyance radiating off her body, Ty Lee wandered back to the buffet table. She’d been eating a lot lately, but it was fine. She worked the weight off fighting assassins, and besides, it was a party!

* * *

Several minutes later, Ty Lee had grown bored with stuffing herself with food, and had begun to wander around the crowd. 

She’d mingled with some old nobles she’d met as a kid, checked up on the Kyoshi warriors guarding the entrances, and even apologized to that Earth Kingdom envoy she’d used as a stepping stool! 

All the while, she’d kept an eye on Mai, Zuko, Suki. It’d first been entertainment as she watched Mai try to stay angry at them, but eventually, it got to the point where she was just waiting for an opportunity to spend more time with her friends. 

But the conversation had taken a strange turn. What had initially been Mai demonstrating a one-sided anger, it had now descended into a serious talk, with all three quietly discussing something that had worry etched all over their faces. 

Of course, the weirdest part, and the reason she’d been wandering around so much, was that, whatever they were talking about, they were  _ constantly  _ turning to look at her.

Eventually, she’d gotten tired of this charade, and she began meandering her way over to her friends, intent on confronting them.

By this point they had gotten into such heated debate that none of them noticed her approaching them. As she got closer, she could parse bits and pieces of their conversation over the din of the crowd.

* * *

“I  _ know  _ what I saw.” Suki growled slightly. “She got to the docks in  _ half  _ the time the other Kyoshi Warriors did.” 

“Well maybe  _ your  _ warriors are slow. Didn’t we kick your ass?” Mai said, viciously. 

“Why you little-” “Mai. Suki,  _ stop _ .” Zuko said quickly, sighing. 

Suki just glared at Mai. “She jumped fifty feet into the air, there’s no other explanation-” 

“You were concussed. That’s a good enough reason.” Mai said, with a sour expression. 

“ _ Mai _ .” Zuko said with a harsh term. “I checked, it was at  _ least  _ fifty feet-”

“It’s still  _ impossible- _ ”

* * *

But just as she approached them, a sinking feeling settled into her gut. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to figure out what triggered that feeling. 

While she did that though, she continued trying to move through the crowd, but it was getting harder and harder. She was less flowing through people, and now having to  _ push  _ through people.

Something felt suffocating in the room, like she was getting crushed by bodies as the crowd flowed around her. But that didn’t make sense, the crowd at the party wasn’t  _ small _ , but it shouldn’t be  _ suffocating _ . It was almost like they were  _ trying  _ to stop her-

Ty Lee froze. 

As subtly as possible, she analyzed the people around her. Instead of the dainty figures of Fire Nation nobility, the people around her were built like soldiers. And those stocky figures seemed to be cloistered around  _ her  _ specifically, though now that she knew what she was looking for, they were flowing everywhere in the party’s crowd.

In particular, she noticed several figures approaching Zuko, Suki, and Mai. 

But as she realized that, she also realized that she had stopped walking. The gap in the crowd she was using to see her friends was closing, as the men silently squeezed around her. 

She took a deep breath and one of the men froze in recognition, before lunging for her. 

He was too late. Her voice echoed through the room with enough force that half the crowd had to slap their hands to their ears in pain. 

“SUKI!!!”

* * *

By the time the men around her flinched at her voice, she was already in the air, using one of the burlier fellows in her way as a step to try racing for the rafters. 

Unfortunately, the man who had already lunged at her managed to get a glancing grab at her uniform. Not enough to hold on for more than a second, but more than enough to screw with her trajectory, dragging her down to land unceremoniously back on the earth. 

From her position on the ground, outside of the scrum she’d previously been inhabiting, the situation didn’t look very good. Distantly she could see Fire Nation nobility running and screaming in every direction. The Kyoshi Warriors were  _ soundly  _ trouncing the assassins as they came across them, but the chaos made it hard for them to work their way into the room. 

But as she pulled her head up, her eyes received far  _ worse  _ news. 

Zuko was on the ground, stunned, and trying to stand as his head bled slightly. Suki and Mai were a whirl of blades and fans trying to defend themselves, but it seemed like the most competent attackers targeting them and the man they were defending. Between Zuko and the tight quarters, neither of them could fight to their full acrobatic potential, getting into brutal slugging matches with the larger men. 

Ty Lee began to get up, heart pounding in her ear, only for one of the assassins to grab her by the arm. She chi-blocked him into uselessness but it slowed her down long enough for more to arrive. 

Mai was thrown to the side, by a lucky shot but Suki was there to knock the man out in retaliation.

For each assassin she chi-blocked, it seemed like two more swarmed her. 

Suki was trying to defend both of them, and was failing miserably. Soon she was on the floor beside Mai. 

Ty Lee’s assailants piled on, more and more assassins blocking her vision. 

The last thing she saw was Zuko valiantly trying to keep them back with fire as the assassins advanced with blades, before her vision was blotted out with enemies surrounding her.

* * *

_ Distantly, the heartbeats in her ears were drowned out by  _ **_wind_ ** _. _

* * *

Zuko, it could be said, was having a rough day. 

The Fire Lord wasn’t a huge fan of parties on the best of days, and it was most certainly not the best of days. He’d been kidnapped last week, which was a lot more traumatic than he remembered, he’d gotten into a fight with Suki over multiple parts of the kidnapping-

* * *

_ “I TOLD YOU that kidnappings were stressful, but noooo, mr ‘I’ve kidnapped tons of people’ thought he’d make a  _ **_joke_ ** _ about it, well what do you think  _ **_now_ ** _ , Zuko? Are kidnappings still  _ **_fun_ ** _ for you?”  _

_ “I think it’s been a week and you’re using nagging as an excuse to visit me in the hot springs on company time.” Zuko said from under his cucumber facial as Suki laid in an adjacent tub next to him.  _

_ “That’s not the  _ **_point_ ** _ , Zuko.” _

* * *

-and his ex-girlfriend, who he had called for  _ help _ , had promptly started feuding with his head of security the minute she arrived, for reasons he still didn’t understand. 

Zuko’s confusion had only ratcheted up as he remembered that Mai was the one who had  _ recommended  _ the Kyoshi warriors to be his bodyguard, and he was about to make that point when Ty Lee had almost burst every eardrum in the room with her shouting. 

Naturally, someone had knocked him unconscious immediately afterwards, and when he’d woken up, everyone, and every _ thing _ was in chaos. 

The entire party was trashed, there were assassins everywhere, and he had a splitting headache that was intimately related to those first two statement. 

Of course, that was to be expected in his life by this point, and he processed those facts with the cold dispassion that comes from years of combat experience before pivoting his mind to his more pressing concern. 

Namely the goddamn  _ tornado  _ in the middle of his ballroom. 

The swirling vortex of air was roughly centered in the heart of the chamber, with the winds throwing everything around the point like a ragdoll. 

It appeared that most of the nobles were gone, which was technically good news, and the assassins were all in various states of disarray, with their probably unconscious bodies either flowing through the air or crushed into the ceiling by the sheer pressure of the winds. 

Everyone else left in the room was desperately trying to hold onto something as the column of air continued pulling everything inexorably into the ceiling. 

Zuko, ever the tactical genius, finally asked himself why he wasn’t being thrown into air like almost everything else not nailed down, and found the answer hooked into the collar of his robes. Namely, Suki’s hand, attached to his bodyguard, who now that Zuko thought about it, was  _ definitely  _ not paid enough for this shit. 

“Oh thank god, you’re awake, do you have ANY idea how heavy you are?!!?!” Suki yelled through the swirling winds, as she adjusted her grip to try to pull him towards her. Her other hand appeared to be attached to a torchholder which was firmly nailed to a supporting beam. 

Zuko dimly noticed that Mai was  _ also  _ holding onto the torchholder for dear life, and he made a mental note to give the palace construction workers raises if they actually survived this mess. 

Mai was reaching out her hand to help him up, but by this point, Zuko had regained his faculties, and was taking charge. 

“No!” He shouted over the roar of the indoor typhoon. “We have to get close and calm her down!” 

“It’s too dangerous!” Suki said through gritted teeth. 

“If we don’t calm her down, she’ll destroy the entire palace!” Zuko shouted back. As if to illustrate his point, a massive table flew past them to splinter into a thousand pieces on the supporting beam above them, barely missing the three of them.

The two women looked at each other, before nodding. 

“Take my shield, Zuko will give you a boost.” Suki said, exertion written over her face. 

Mai quickly grabbed Suki’s collapsible shield from her upper forearm, almost losing it to the wind despite it remaining in it’s retractable form. However, Mai regained control, and took a squatting position on the torchholder, her body aimed to follow the storm. 

Suki began swinging Zuko back and forth in the wind, building up momentum as smoke began following his path of movement. 

“Ready…” Suki said, strain in her voice as Mai got ready to jump. “NOW!” She screamed over the din. 

Mai leapt forward as Zuko hit the zenith of his swing, the fan-like shield still collapsed in her hands. 

Orange flame propelled Zuko forward towards the vortex, and when he obtained enough speed, Suki let him go. He rocketed towards Mai, twisting in midair so that instead of propelling him towards the vortex, his feet would slam into her. 

At the last second, Mai activated the shield, and instead of unceremoniously kicking his girlfriend in the face, Zuko’s feet landed on the yellow shield. Another blast of fire through his feet had both of them rocketing in separate directions, Zuko away from the vortex, Mai towards the center of it.

* * *

When Mai crashed into the eye of the storm, she really didn't know what to expect. 

Probably something involving glowing eyes, howling wind and a lingering feeling that she was going to be squashed like a bug under the eyes of uncaring gods. 

But it was strangely...quiet. The chaos and noise the vortex created didn’t extend into here. So as she got up from where she’d landed, throwing away the shield, and wincing at the bruises she would wake up with tomorrow, Mai took the time to look around. Half of the buffet table was still there, amazingly with some food still waiting to be served, as were the unconscious bodies of several assassins. 

But as she gingerly tiptoed over the burly assailants, she found the source of their indoor natural disaster. 

Ty Lee stood there, eyes still a haunting grey, and her Kyoshi makeup unblemished by the tears running down her cheeks. She stood in a T-pose, hands splayed out, her even breathing contrasting with the tension throughout her body. 

“Ty Lee?” Mai asked quietly. 

Ty Lee’s eyes didn’t move, and water continued down her cheeks. 

“Ty Lee, it’s me, Mai.” She paused. “...mind if I come closer?” 

The girl’s eyes didn’t move, but she nodded slightly. 

Mai moved forward, finally getting within a scant two feet of the girl. 

“...are you real?” Ty Lee asked quietly. 

Mai, uncertainly, moved a hand towards her friend and cupped her cheek. Ty Lee leaned into the touch and her eyes finally closed as tears continued to stream down her face. 

While she was horribly unused to touching people like this, Mai moved forward and hugged her friend, wrapping her arms around Ty Lee’s strange posture, and for the first time since she arrived in the heart of the storm, she heard her friend’s breathing catch. 

“Suki and Zuko-” “We’re okay, Ty Lee. We’re all okay, thanks to you.” She said, hugging her friend tighter. “You can let go now.” 

Mai saw the vortex slowly begin to dissipate around her, the roaring wind gradually letting everything that had been pushed upwards gently fall back towards the ground.

It wasn’t until the last piece of furniture hit the floor with a quiet scrape that Mai realized that Ty Lee’s arms weren’t in a T-pose anymore, and were instead hugging her back. 

Ty Lee’s breathing, formerly so even and powerful, was now hitched and abrupt as she was sobbing into her shirt. 

“I’m so sorry, I’m  _ so  _ sorry-” she repeated through her tears. “I don’t know what happened, I just wanted to-” 

“It’s all right…” Mai said, as soothingly as she could. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Suki and Zuko approaching them as other Kyoshi warriors were cuffing various assassins. 

Suki was supporting Zuko as he held his side and limped, but both gave her identically confused looks asking her what to do. 

She angled her gaze to her sobbing friend and back again. 

They tilted their own heads in bewilderment, so she mouthed “Get over here!” before tilting her head more obviously from them to Ty Lee trying to get her point across. 

The glare she gave them, which Zuko was  _ far  _ too familiar with by this point, finally got her intent across, and the two hobbled over to them.

“See, Zuko and Suki are  _ fine _ .” Mai said evenly, and her friend turned up from her position buried in Mai’s shirt to see Suki and Zuko there, worse for wear, but decidedly not dead. 

Before she could stop her, Ty Lee had  _ launched  _ herself into the two, almost bowling them over.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay, we’re here.” Zuko said through his pained wince. 

“We’re alright, Ty Lee.” Suki said soothingly as she ran a head over her subordinate’s hair. 

The crying was back, and was loud enough that Mai was seriously considering leaving, only for her ex-boyfriend and his bodyguard to give her dirty looks that convinced her to join the group hug.

* * *

Only when Ty Lee had finally been engulfed in her friends for long enough to assure her subconscious that they were okay, did the river of tears finally slow into an ebb, and then a trickle, before subsiding completely.

At that point, Zuko felt the need to open his big fat mouth. 

“So...I’ve been meaning to say this, but...Ty Lee, I think you’re an Airbender.” 

Mai and Suki elbowed him in the ribs simultaneously. 

“AH, Ah, ribs! Mind the ribs…” He said, cringing in pain as Suki winced in sympathy, and Mai facepalmed.

"Sorry." "Don't be sorry, he deserved that!" 

This promptly set off another round of bickering between the two while Zuko rolled his eyes, with the girls quietly arguing over the top of Ty Lee's head. 

But under their whispered threats, the injured Fire Lord heard another voice. A high pitched giggle coming from within the hug that only continued as the threats became increasingly more inane and petty. 

And despite his still throbbing side, Zuko realized that his aching ribs were a small price to pay to hear those subdued giggles again. 


End file.
